


Five ways (plus one) in which Othersideverse!Bruce got himself a Robin

by marcelo



Series: Othersideverse [12]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 09:50:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16910685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcelo/pseuds/marcelo
Summary: For Katarik, who gave me the prompt.





	Five ways (plus one) in which Othersideverse!Bruce got himself a Robin

**Author's Note:**

> For Katarik, who gave me the prompt.

A few weeks before Alfred gave him away, Bruce kidnapped Zsasz from Arkham and dumped him in Blackgate's maximum security patio during the Black Brotherhood's daily exercises. He later judged that this was too volatile a method for regular use, although he couldn't fault its efficiency.

* * *

Hiring Slade to help him hunt down Ra's al Ghul and his League had been both effective and a learning experience. Slade was a superbly creative tactician, and his combat style was unlike anything Bruce had seen. All things considered, Bruce estimated that he had cut in more than half the time it would have taken him to wipe out the Demon's organization on his own.

Killing Slade afterward was, as expected, tricky, as Slade was an extremely difficult person to surprise, and almost impossible to defeat when forewarned. Most people didn't expect a trap primed with a low-yield nuclear weapon, though, and the Chinese government passed it off as a victimless "industrial accident" in Wayne Enterprises' closed down Hubei mine.

Just in case, Bruce still lists Deathstroke as "Possibly dead, unverified."

* * *

Detective Montoya was an honest cop, so he gave her his word that he would't kill Jim Corrigan if she helped him build a case to put the man behind bars. 

It wasn't Bruce's fault that Corrigan killed himself before he was sentenced to Blackgate, but to this day Renée doesn't believe him.

* * *

The trick is never to let Nygma get bored, that's all.

* * *

Wayne doesn't have to call Superman in to help with every superpowered menace that ambles into Gotham. Actually, he could probably deal with all of them on his own.

But it makes Superman underestimate him, and that might be useful later.

* * *

She doesn't help him because he has saved her life a few times, because they used to be lovers, because he knows secrets that could hurt her loved ones or because they both know that he always makes sure that nobody has to die as a direct result of her help.

She does it because he gives her information nobody else can, and that's a reasonable transaction in Lois Lane's mind.


End file.
